Exchanges enable buyers and sellers to trade financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, options, cash, agricultural products, commodities, and futures, etc. A futures contract is a financial instrument that represents a potential legal obligation for delivery or acceptance of another financial instrument or an underlying commodity at a specified time in the future. The financial instrument that underlies a futures contract may include a quantity of grains, metals, oils, bonds, securities, or cash. The exchange establishes a futures contract specification that defines at least the underlying product, a quantity of the underlying product represented by one futures contract, and a contract month (the month in which the delivery may take place). The specification defines the expiry month for a futures contract in terms of a month and a year and the futures contract may not be traded after a predetermined day of the defined month and year. The potential legal obligation represented by the futures contract to deliver the underlying product becomes a real legal obligation for the seller of the futures contract when the futures contract expires. Similarly, the potential legal obligation represented by the futures contract to accept delivery of the underlying product becomes a real legal obligation when the seller of the futures contract declares an intention to deliver. Additionally, exchanges facilitate buying and selling of other types of contracts including cash contracts and cash forward contracts, which may involve delivery of a commodity in the future.
A futures contract may be traded in a physical exchange where buyers and sellers meet. A buyer and a seller use an open outcry auction process among other buyers and sellers to negotiate a price at which to buy and sell, respectively, a quantity of the futures contracts. After the buyer and seller agree upon the quantity and the price, the buyer and the seller each report his/her portion of the trade to the exchange. The information reported by the buyer comprises identification information about the buyer, who the buyer believes is the seller, the quantity the buyer believes has been purchased, and the price to be paid thereby. Similarly, the seller reports information comprising identification information thereof, who the seller believes is the buyer, and the quantity the seller believes has been sold and the price to be received thereby. In some cases, the exchange encodes and transmits to a clearinghouse the information reported by the buyer and the seller separately as two sets of trade data. Alternately, the exchange creates and transmits to the clearinghouse matched trade data that comprises the information reported by both the buyer and the seller.
A futures contract may also be traded in an electronic exchange where a trader submits an order to a trading host. The order is either a bid or an offer that indicates a desire to purchase or sell, respectively, the futures contract. The order identifies, at least, the futures contract, the quantity of the futures contract the trader wishes to buy or sell, the price at which the trader wishes to buy or sell the futures contract, and a direction of the order (i.e., whether the order is a bid or an offer). The trading host monitors orders that are received thereby to identify a bid for the futures contract at a particular price with an offer for the same futures contract at the same or lower price. Similarly, the trading host monitors orders that are received thereby to identify an offer for the futures contract at a particular price with a bid for the same futures contract at the same or higher price. Upon identification of the bid and the offer, a quantity associated therewith is matched and the quantity, price, and identification information regarding the buyer and seller are transmitted to the clearinghouse as matched trade data.
The clearinghouse settles the accounts of the members, clears trades, collects and maintains margin funds, and reports trade data. Each trading firm that holds membership in the clearinghouse becomes liable to the clearinghouse for all trades made on the behalf of the trading firm or a customer of the trading firm. The trading firm with which the trader is associated guarantees delivery or receipt obligations of the trader. Furthermore, the clearinghouse oversees and insures that obligations made by the trader are carried out in a timely fashion.
At the end of every trading session, the clearinghouse reconciles trading data received thereby from an exchange and transmits cleared trade data to a clearing firm associated with each trader. Thereafter, each clearing firm “marks to market” the account of each trader associated therewith. That is, the clearing firm records the net position of each trader in accordance with any changes in the prices of the futures contracts in which the trader has an open position. The trading firm also confirms that the trader has sufficient margin funds on deposit to support the net position thereof.
The specification of a futures contract that requires delivery of an underlying product defines the characteristics (e.g., grade, purity, weight, etc.) of the underlying product that is to be delivered. Typically, the delivery or acceptance obligations associated with the futures contract may begin at anytime during the delivery month and must be fulfilled within a predetermined number of business days after the last trading day of the delivery month.
During the expiry month, a trader holding an open long position a particular futures contract may have to take delivery when the trader holding a short position in that futures contract decides to make delivery. Furthermore, the specification of the futures contract defines the last day by which the seller must complete delivery. The clearing firm representing the seller notifies the clearinghouse that the seller wants to deliver on a futures contract. The clearinghouse notifies both the seller and the clearing firm representing the buyer. The clearing firm representing the seller forwards an invoice to the clearinghouse, which in turn forwards the invoice to clearing firm representing the buyer. On the day when delivery is to take place, the clearing firm representing the buyer presents a certified check or other payment instrument (including electronic transfers of funds) for the amount due to the clearing firm representing the seller. After the clearing firm representing the seller receives payment for the amount due, the clearing firm representing the seller transfers a paper delivery instrument (normally a warehouse receipt or a vault receipt) to the clearing firm representing the buyer.
The paper delivery instrument is issued by a warehouse (if the underlying product is a grain or other agricultural product) or a vault (if the underlying product is a metal) where the underlying product is stored. The buyer can then present the paper delivery instrument to the issuer (either warehouse or vault) to redeem the underlying product.
The exchange authenticates the paper delivery instrument as representing a quantity of product that meets specification defined by the exchange and denotes the authentication by marking the paper delivery instrument with an indicium corresponding to the exchange. For example, the exchange may specify the weight and fineness of a bar of gold that may be used to deliver on a contract acquired at the exchange. The paper delivery instrument bearing the indicium corresponding to the exchange provides assurance that the bar of gold meets the standards that the exchange has set forth. Typically, a paper delivery instrument is marked with an indicium corresponding to a particular exchange. Additionally, some exchanges require that delivery of underlying futures contracts traded at such exchanges must be accomplished using paper delivery instruments bearing the indicium corresponding to the exchange.
In some cases, typically involving agricultural products, the exchange, the clearing firms, and the clearinghouse use electronic receipts instead of paper receipts to facilitate delivery. Specifically, an electronic receipt is an entry in a database record associated with a clearing firm that indicates that a trader associated with the clearing firm owns a quantity of a product. The electronic receipt typically includes information generated by the exchange that indicates that the electronic receipt is authentic and that the exchange has verified that the underlying product meets the specifications set the exchange.
In some instances, the database entry for the electronic receipt is associated with an account the clearing firm has at a clearinghouse. In other instances, the database entry is associated with an account at the exchange. Typically, clearing firms maintain records that associate a trader who owns a product and the electronic receipt that represents the product. Such records are typically associated with an account the trader has at the clearing firm and are notations in a database record corresponding to the account. In order to deliver a product, the seller authorizes the clearing firm associated therewith to transfer an electronic receipt to an account associated with the buyer. As with paper receipts, electronic receipts are bearer receipts in that the holder of the electronic receipt may request physical delivery of the product represented by the electronic receipt. Typically, the holder of the electronic receipt notifies the clearing firm that delivery is desired, and the clearing firm subsequently notifies the warehouse or vault to provide delivery to the holder. In some cases, the holder of the electronic receipt notifies the exchange that delivery is desired and the exchange notifies the warehouse or vault to provide delivery to the holder. Upon notification, the warehouse or vault provides the underlying good to holder and notifies the clearing firm or exchange that the good has been delivered. Typically, the notifications described above are communications that are sent between systems operated by entities (i.e., the clearing firm, the exchange, the clearinghouse, and the issuer) that participate in the delivery. In some cases, a staff member at one of the entities may communicate with a staff member at another entity to facilitate the delivery process. The clearing firm or the exchange thereafter voids the electronic receipt.
There are risks to both the buyer and seller associated with the handling and transportation of the paper delivery instrument. The paper delivery instruments can be lost or damaged and typically, the paper delivery instruments are bearer instruments so anyone presenting the instrument can take delivery of the underlying product. In addition, the vault or warehouse may be in a location remote from the exchange and/or the buyer and, in such cases, the buyer may have to arrange for transportation of the physical delivery instrument to an agent for the buyer where the vault or warehouse is located.
Furthermore, if a trader wishes to use a delivery instrument authenticated by a first exchange to deliver on trades made at a second exchange, the second exchange may have to verify that the product represented by the delivery instrument at least meets the requirements for products specified by the second exchange. In such cases, either the trader or the second exchange may incur costs and delays associated with the verification process. The second exchange may undertake such costs if the market provided by the second exchange alternative to an established market in the product provided by the first exchange. However, such expenditures add to the cost of operating the market.